October - all in one big post

Luckily, October came and went on one camera.  So let's do a LONG recap :)

Cub scouts visited a local fire house for their October den meeting; Austin saw lots of exciting things and made an escape route for our house in case of emergency.

His head, for the first time in his life, looks small :)

No clue; just was a good picture of the whole group.

Austin was listening intently.

Our church has a pumpkin patch every year and one weekend of the month they have a Party in the Patch.  Ansley is waiting in line for the bounce house.

As you will see in a minute, An needed a pumpkin for school, so we of course had to get her one that was her size!

Austin was running over, kind of got camouflaged in the background :)

Of course, someone stole the camera from me and decided to play the role of a photog!

Later, An convinced me to jump on the trampoline; clearly I am reliving childhood memories of Uncle Scott and me and our epic trampoline fights!!

Now, I am down on An's level.  Where the smaller I get the more I hurt!!

Up, up, and away!!

Charlie is out hunting squirrels..........no comment.

On October 30, I submitted my tenure packet for consideration.....Five years, three binders, six months of waiting......the tenure submission process: stressful!!  I will not hear anything until May 2013, so the waiting will be the worst!!

Ansley had a Halloween Party at school; she had lots of fun dressing up as a butterfly fairy.

This is her whole class; they were all quite cute dressed up as bugs and princesses and Spiderman!

An and Eric had great fun making a cool pumpkin!

Ansley and Annabell, "who is a bee, who takes pollen from flowers, do you know that" said Ansley when telling me who was in this picture with her.

Then Eric went over to Austin's school for Pumpkin Olympics; they had all kinds of games in the parking lot.

This is Austin's whole class; they are going for the monochromatic look :)

Austin going for the orange "cone" race; Go, Go, Go!!

This was the passing race, over and under; REACH!!!

And then there is Railey; Austin's new friend from Cub Scout camp.  Her brother is in Cub Scouts with Austin and they seemed to hit it off like "two peas in a pod" during their camp out weekend before last.... 

Then, later that same day, our annual neighborhood Halloween Party!!  It was SO cold, but we had a blast anyways!

AC1 & AC2 on the annual hayride; Eric did not drive this year, so he got to ride on it and enjoy it with the kids.

Uncle Patrick and Aunt Heather came over to celebrate with us on Halloween and we got him to take a picture with the little ones.......

Ansley got a ride with Uncle Pat while Dad was making a fire to roast marsh mellows in the background.

Somehow when we got dressed on Sunday for church, when it was back to 70 degree weather, we all had the same hue on, so we decided a picture was needed.  Don't worry, we were not too blue (snicker, snicker).

 

Happy October!!!

Cub Scouts

I will not try to explain our absence with excuses, just pictures!!

Austin joined Cub Scouts and is a Tiger Cub; he has really enjoyed all the things he has done thus far.  Today they had a Soap Box Derby and he and Eric are camping tonight, so there maybe more pictures to come from camping tomorrow!!

Here he is being pushed by one of his fellow Tigers in an oval race.

 He is coming around the finish line!!

 This was a downhill race; he was screaming most of the way down!!

He was checking his time. 

 

 He is back in the downhill race.

 Here he comes!!

 

 These pictures are from two weekends ago; there is an annual parade in our neighborhood that shuts down the main road.  The kids and Eric have gone every year we have lived here, but this year I got to go too!  Austin was marching in it with his Cub Scout Troop.

 Ansley was eagerly waiting to get as much candy as she could grab!!

 Here is our Tiger Cub bringing his sister some candy; talk about front row service!!!

Then he ran back to Dad before anyone caught him being nice to Ansley!!

Uncle Patrick's Wedding

Uncle Patrick & Aunt Heather got married this weekend and A & A were the flower girl and ring bearer and Eric was a groomsman; we all survived and got some cute pictures along the way .....

This is from the rehearsal dinner; they were so excited to get to be a part of the big day!

 They were trying to figure out where the little guys were going to stand during the ceremony.

 The natives got restless at the rehearsal, so I had to give up the camera to keep them entertained; Austin got a picture of An & I.

 Saturday Eric spent the day skeet shooting and out with the other 7 groomsmen, so the kids and I had to find a way to keep ourselves entertained and cool as it was 106 degrees here yesterday; I almost thought I was back in Texas!!  So, to that end, An & Charlie cuddled on the kitchen floor.  He puts up with so much from her!!

The cutest picture ever!!!  I want to look at this one all day!!

 Once inside, we had to keep cool, so we stood in front of fans and swamp coolers (I think that is what people kept calling them!) 

  We also had to keep ourselves busy with toys :)  This was a super bouncy ball that I am proud to report did not show up during the ceremony.  Although at one point it went bouncing down this huge staircase and into the main room.  Fortunately, no guests had arrived yet!!

 Ansley and her Uncle Bunny trying to cool off!

 The full party!!  Needless to say, we had a great time!!!

Congrats Uncle Patrick & Aunt Heather!!  We wish you all the best!!!  Thanks for letting us all be a part of your huge day!!



VBS 2012

We just finished up an amazing week of VBS at our church; Ansley got on stage to sing for the last day and Eric caught a few shots and a video.  WARNING: video is not for the faint at heart/stomach!!  If you get sea sick easily, do not watch the video as it is very shaky!!

 a little red eye...........

As you can see from the above pictures, she is wearing a HUGE white bow in her hair.

We were in boot camp all week and now we are part of God's army.  The kids had fun and enjoyed spending time with the bigger kids who were the helpers.  I was one of Ansley's teachers and can honestly say it was an experience!!  I would go to VBS from 9a-1p and then work until 3:30 or 4 when Eric would bring me the kids and go to school.....it made for a long week!

Eric allowed Ansley to be a photog later!

Austin had fun too; he was given lots of Happy Birthday high-fives on Tuesday and then got to tell all about his party when he returned on Wednesday.

6

Ansley is happy to say that Austin made it to 6 today!

 Here he is this morning opening a gift from Farya, Paul & Milla in Austin/Seattle.  Austin and Paul are kindred souls as they share the same birthday just a few years apart :)

 Austin was too excited to open his presents and cards from Texas; he even did a little chicken dance!!!  This all before 8:30am when we left to go to Vacation Bible School at our church; we are in Boot Camp VBS style all week, so I am starting to talk in cadence.

Then later on, we had his birthday party at the pool. Here Eric is teaching them how to do pop rocks; only a mother could love that choice!!

 Then on to the pinata!!  What is a Texan's Juneteenth birthday celebration without a pinata?!? 

 While that is a nice line of kids, I can assure you it did not take more than a few hits for it to come crashing to the ground!!

 Austin was so nice to share some of his candy with his Uncle Bunny!!

 And then of course Eric had to get in and take a few Tootsie Rolls.....

 Ansley was so proud of her loot!!

 Time for singing and cupcakes!!

 The most painful part of the whole party was I made Austin wait until we got home to open the gifts so I could keep track of things and of course install batteries, etc......needless to say, once we got home it was a free for all!!

This is some sort of scary reaper; he might use it to slay the Lego men in his bed!!

All in all, we had a great day!!  Albeit so very long!!  I swore to myself I would post these before bed and I have, but now it is time for some shut eye!! 

Just a few quick notes for my "baby book" before bed: Austin you are in love with Legos right now; my feet on the other hand are not :)  You are working hard on your worksheets this summer, despite the grumblings we get in the mornings!!  We need to work on your swimming as you really wanted to go in the deep end today with your buddies but were too embarrassed to wear your life jacket.  But I was proud you did not try to be brave and go in the deep end just to show your friends you could!!  I love your energy and perseverance!  We are so glad we could see you grow for your first 6 years!!  Love you!!

Long lost & forgotten

Don't worry blog world; I did not forget about you!!  But I did get a little busy!!  Enough excuses!!  Let's get to the pictures!!

 This is from LegoLand; needless to say Austin is obsessed with LegoLand and his Grandma took him to it over Spring Break.  However, after waiting for over 2 hours and not getting in due to the length of the line, she just got Austin a cool Lego set and headed home.  Can't blame her for that!!

 They also took AC1 to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and went to this cool bird farm; they also found this neat bridge to cross over.

 Then Grandma took Austin on the train; it will not be long until they are the same height!!

 We cannot forget about Charlie; the only blind Labrador who is not a retriever.

 This is from Ansley's end of school party, she is signing Our God is an Awesome God; her favorite song!!  I will try to add a video of this later.

 So this is the snake Eric found in our garage.  He found it a few days after Ansley had stumbled upon one in the yard.  Problem was, she found the snake and in a normal tone of voice said "snake" while squatted down on the ground looking at the snake that was only inches away from her.  Once I realized what was going on, An & I had to have a BIG talk about what to do when you see a snake!! 

 This picture is from today when the kids found out Eric was going to be taking them to a huge park to see a soap box derby.  They were super excited!!

 Eric took tons of pictures as he of course wants to try and make one next year with Austin......we'll see how that works!!

 They had to take a break; they were on the side of the road from where the cars came racing by....it was a bit warm today here; but nothing compared to Texas!!

 Ansley found her a new friend, as they did not take Charlie with them.  It seems our next pup may have to be a golden retriever; maybe it can retrieve :)

They were playing in this field where all of a sudden parachutes began to land with people attached to them; Ansley told me all about how these people just came out of the sky and kept falling to the ground and they could not stay up in the sky...

So otherwise, what have I missed out on posting about.........well, there was a trip to Texas for Dad's ##th birthday; fill in the blanks for whatever year you want to make him :)   A nice April filled with lots of sun & flowers; Eric finished his undergraduate coursework after 19 years of trying and is now in graduate school (he did not graduate, he will walk when he gets his master's degree; I am not that awful that I did not get that picture!!); Ansley finished preschool; Granddad & Nanny came to see Ansley for her 4th birthday; Austin finished Kindergarten; and we have been going to the pool a lot!!

I know; where are the pictures???  I must do better!!